Grants for community foundations

1,133 community foundations received at least $1.1 billion in grants for the most recent fiscal year. This includes 2,613 grants made from 1,736 grantmaking organizations, with a median grant amount of $1,500. Of these 1,736 foundations, 85% made just a single grant to foundations, and 3% made grants to four or more foundations. This analysis is based on grantmakers that e-file their Form 990s, and likely is an undercount of grants.
$1,092,613,857
Total grant dollars given to community foundations
2,613
Number of grants made annually to community foundations
1,736
Number of grantmakers funding community foundations
$1,500
Median grant size to community foundations

Foundations that support community foundations

Out of all grants made to community foundations, 73% came from small foundations with less than $10 million in assets. The top 10 grantmakers accounted for 74% of the dollar-value of grants to foundations. Foundations funding foundations also made grants to food banks, universities, multiservice human service organizations, theaters, and animal shelters.

Foundation size

Foundation sizeNumber of grantmakers
Small
 
1,281
Medium
 
213
Large
 
241
Small foundations have <$10M in assets. Medium foundations have $10M to $50M in assets. Large foundations have >$50M in assets.

Foundation type

Foundation typeNumber of grantmakers
Community
 
76
Private
 
1,399
Corporate
 
109
Other
 
152

Grants made

Grants made to foundationsNumber of grantmakers
1
 
1,483
2-3
 
185
4-10
 
50
11+
 
18

Top 10 foundations supporting community foundations

GrantmakerStateGeographic focusPercent of grant dollars to foundationsNumber of grants made to foundationsMedian grant size
Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee (CFMT)TNMetro0.2%93$250
Rasmuson FoundationAKState0.3%48$310
Greater Tacoma Community Foundation (GTCF)WAMetro0.8%46$1,000
Baird FoundationWINational0.8%37$500
Chubb Charitable FoundationPANational0.1%27$100
JP Morgan Chase FoundationNYNational1.4%25$500
Land O'Lakes FoundationMNNational0.4%23$600
Abbvie FoundationILNational0.1%23$200
The Mccune FoundationCAMetro3.0%17$1,000
LPL Financial FoundationMANational0.7%16$500

Community foundations grantees

Community foundations with more than $5 million in total revenues received 92% of all grant dollars. These larger organizations accounted for 68% of all foundations.

Grant amounts

Size of grantNumber of grants
<$10k
 
2,527
$10k-$25k
 
0
$25k-$100k
 
0
$100k+
 
86

Grant amount by grantee size

Grantee annual revenueMedian grant size
<$100k
 
$1,500
$100k-$500k
 
$1,000
$500k-$1M
 
$1,500
$1M-$5M
 
$2,000
>$5M
 
$1,500

Grantee states

State of granteeNumber of grants
California
 
346
Florida
 
157
Texas
 
136
Ohio
 
133
Other
 
1,841

Grantee metros

Metro area of granteeNumber of grants
Nashville
 
107
New York City
 
92
Los Angeles
 
66
Riverside
 
55
Other
 
1,828

Top 25 grants made to community foundations

GranteeGrant sizePurposeGrantmaker
East Bay Community Foundation (EBCF)$230,000,000Grants/donationKaiser Foundation Health Plan (KFHP)
East Bay Community Foundation (EBCF)$197,500,000Project SupportKaiser Permanente
The Chicago Community Trust$100,705,810General Nonprofit SupportSilicon Valley Community Foundation (SVCF)
California Community Foundation$50,000,000Project SupportKaiser Permanente
Tahoe Truckee Community Foundation$24,694,536Philanthropy, Voluntarism & Grantmaking FoundationGreater Horizons
Central Kansas Community Foundation$23,975,151Philanthropy, Voluntarism & Grantmaking FoundationGreater Horizons
South Central Community Foundation$17,316,125Philanthropy, Voluntarism & Grantmaking FoundationGreater Horizons
Community Foundation of Southern New Mexico$15,167,994Philanthropy, Voluntarism & Grantmaking FoundationGreater Horizons
The Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta$15,000,042For the Joseph B. Whitehead Fund To Support Achieve Atlanta, An Initiative To Improve the Postsecondary Success of Students in Atlanta Public Schools.Joseph B Whitehead Foundation
The Denver Foundation$14,300,000Project SupportKaiser Foundation Health Plan of Colorado
Marin Community Foundation$13,761,932For the Dimarco Harleen Family Fund of the Marin Community Foundation. for the Jane, Sam and Scott Miller Fund. for the Dimarco Harleen Family Fund of the Marin Community Foundation. for the Jane, Sam and Scott Miller Fund. for General Support of the Presidio Theater. for the Marin Retirement Communities Scholarship Fund.San Francisco Foundation (TSFF)
Essex County Community Foundation (ECCF)$13,645,903Philanthropy, Voluntarism & Grantmaking FoundationGreater Horizons
The Chicago Community Trust$13,228,162Civic & SocialThe Rhoades Foundation
Community First Foundation$13,144,377For General Operating SupportThe Denver Foundation
Community Foundations of the Hudson Valley$12,460,000Project Support: Radio Kingston CorpNovo Foundation
Central New York Community Foundation$10,504,096Elsa Allyn Soderberg Fund TransferAllyn Family Foundation
Foundation for the Carolinas$9,500,000Section 139 Disaster ReliefHyatt Hotels Foundation
Indian River Community Foundation$9,340,239Philanthropy, Voluntarism & Grantmaking FoundationGreater Horizons
Omaha Community Foundation$9,224,772GeneralThe Harper Family Foundation
Foundation for Detroits Future$8,333,333For the Detroit Institute of Arts Settlement Project To Expedite Detroits Bankruptcy Settlement Assist in Honoring Pension Commitments and Preserve the Institutes Collection for Public BenefitThe Ford Foundation
Omaha Community Foundation$7,913,207GeneralThe Harper Family Foundation
San Francisco Foundation (TSFF)$7,500,000For General Operating SupportWilliam and Flora Hewlett Foundation
Arizona Community Foundation$7,498,969Program SupportArizona Community Foundation
The Community Foundation$7,472,184Philanthropy, Voluntarism & Grantmaking FoundationGreater Horizons
The Oregon Community Foundation$6,320,924CashOCF Joseph E Weston Public Foundation
Methodology: To determine grants and grantees, Cause IQ analyzes electronically-filed Form 990, Form 990-EZ, and Form 990-PF financial disclosure documents, matching grantees to specific organizations using EINs and fuzzy matching logic. The "Community foundations" category for this page is determined by the "T31: Community Foundations" National Taxonomy of Exempt Entities (NTEE) code. Cause IQ determines NTEEs for organizations by its own internally-developed secret-sauce algorithms.